Disputes about sovereignty mainly arise in those cases where fundamental rights are infringed, or democratic participation denied, on account of the citizens' membership in certain ethno-cultural minority groups. Moreover, the fact that serious challenges to sovereignty can be detected even in ethno-culturally diverse polities, which by all standards qualify as fairly just liberal-democracies, can only mean that the complex relationship between sovereignty and the diversity challenge is in need of serious consideration and analysis. By observing sovereignty and diversity through the lens of a broader liberal-democratic doctrine, this book sets out plausible strategies to cope with the problems that evolve from this issue. Sovereignty and Diversity is divided into three parts. In Part I, various normative theories of secession are evaluated both in relation to philosophy and to political science. Furthermore, the value and possible role of the uti possidetis principle is discussed. Part II addresses the value of various other methods to accommodate population diversity as means to solve disputes over sovereignty - namely multiculturalism, federalism, and decentralization, as well as minority rights. Finally, Part III groups together three case studies - the first two dealing with the secession and partition theme, while the last one shows the potential of other, less controversial means to address tensions about sovereignty. This volume is a collection of updated papers presented at the University of Belgrade in July 2005, at the international conference "Legal and Political Solution to Disputes over Sovereignty - From Kosovo to Quebec."

The topic of sovereignty is contentious, and one of enduring interest. In a world of ever increasing economic globalisation, the rise of supranational regulation and the interconnected age of information and communication technology, among many other developments, have challenged the once exclusively held Westphalian model of sovereignty. The distinction between the internal aspect of sovereignty as expressed in terms of ultimate authority in a constitution, and the external aspect involving the relationship between sovereign states has been blurred. This has given rise to contemporary debates that explore the theoretical and practical implications of current challenges to established doctrines. Evidently no book could encompass the entirety of the contemporary debates on sovereignty. This is a book of essays focusing on sovereignty by a team of leading writers contributing domestic, European and international perspectives. The essays have been written at a time of very great testing of the institutional frameworks at every level: domestic, European, international or global. The book illuminates the enduring strength of sovereignty as a foundational concept and the continuing widespread appeal of sovereignty as an idea.

In the urgency to respond to the challenges posed by diversity in contemporary societies, the discussion of normative foundations is often overlooked. This book takes that important first step, and offers new ways of thinking about diversity. Its contribution to an ongoing dialogue in this field lies in the construction of a normative framework which endeavours to better understand the challenges of justice in diverse societies. By applying this normative framework to specific and broader examples of injustices in the spheres of religion, culture, race, ethnicity, gender and nationality, the book demonstrates how constitutional pluralist discourses can contribute both to new and legal responses to diversity. The book will be of interest to legal professionals, policy makers, law students and scholars concerned with exploring diversity in the 21st century.

What is this thing called Global Justice? explores the core topics covered on the increasingly popular undergraduate modules on global justice including: world poverty economic inequality nationalism human rights humanitarian intervention immigration global democracy and governance climate change international justice. Centered on real world problems, this textbook helps students to understand that global justice is not only a field of philosophical inquiry but also of practical importance. Each chapter concludes with a helpful summary of the main ideas discussed, study questions and a further reading guide.

Addressing the management of genetic resources, this book offers a new assessment of the contemporary Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) regime. Debates about ABS have moved on. The initial focus on the legal obligations established by international agreements like the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and the form of obligations for collecting physical biological materials have now shifted into a far more complex series of disputes and challenges about the ways ABS should be implemented and enforced. These now cover a wide range of issues, including: digital sequence information, the repatriation of resources, technology transfer, traditional knowledge and cultural expressions, open access to information and knowledge, naming conventions, farmers’ rights, new schemes for accessing pandemic viruses sharing DNA sequences, and so on. Drawing together perspectives from an interdisciplinary range of leading and emerging international scholars, this book offers a new approach to the ABS landscape; as it breaks from the standard regulatory analyses in order to explore alternative solutions to the intractable issues for the Access and Benefit Sharing of genetic resources. Addressing these modern legal debates from a perspective that will appeal to both ABS scholars and those with broader legal concerns in the areas of intellectual property, food, governance, Indigenous issues, and so on, this book will be a useful resource for scholars and students as well as those in government and in international institutions working in relevant areas.

This important book on Land Education offers critical analysis of the paths forward for education on Indigenous land. This analysis discusses the necessity of centring historical and current contexts of colonization in education on and in relation to land. In addition, contributors explore the intersections of environmentalism and Indigenous rights, in part inspired by the realisation that the specifics of geography and community matter for how environmental education can be engaged. This edited volume suggests how place-based pedagogies can respond to issues of colonialism and Indigenous sovereignty. Through dynamic new empirical and conceptual studies, international contributors examine settler colonialism, Indigenous cosmologies, Indigenous land rights, and language as key aspects of Land Education. The book invites readers to rethink 'pedagogies of place' from various Indigenous, postcolonial, and decolonizing perspectives. This book was originally published as a special issue of Environmental Education Research.

Re-Framing the International insists that, if we are to properly face the challenges of the coming century, we need to re-examine international politics and development through the prism of ethics and morality. International relations must now contend with a widening circle of participants reflecting the diversity and uneveness of status, memory, gender, race, culture and class.

The historical examination of the concept and the conceptual analysis of sovereignty are interdependent. This title makes a significant contribution to the literature on sovereignty from the history of political thought and political theory.